Follow the journey of a Wisconsin family of 4 who relocated to the Walt Disney World area in July 2011

Tag Archives: Walt Disney World

Tonight at 5:00pm ET, Catie’s HS Choir will be performing at the Candlelight Processional featuring Neil Patrick Harris as the Narrator. We’ll be broadcasting the entire show on UStream (if all goes well). So please join us at http://www.ustream.tv/channel/wishes-and-pixie-dust if you’d like to enjoy along! Please share with anyone who might enjoy this live NPH CP performance.

As a vacationer, Epcot was the least favorite of our Disney Parks, and we couldn’t imagine why guests would rave on about it. It was nice, yes, but we felt the other parks had so much more to offer. As residents, we have grown to love Epcot, and this week’s column will highlight five different aspects of what makes Epcot unique to us.

Marine Animals. As you exit The Seas with Nemo and Friends Attraction, take the escalator up to the second level and enjoy the aquariums that display the marine animals. Did you realize that Epcot is home to a manatee research and rehabilitation center? Vail and Lou are two West Indian Manatees who were victims of a boat strike, and are currently recovering until they can be re-released into the wild. Pictured below is Lou feeding on romaine lettuce: both Vail and Lou each consume 100 lbs of greens daily.

Spaceship Earth. This slow-moving attraction, located inside the geosphere, offers a glimpse into history beginning with the period of cavemen and ending with the information age. It is an educational but enjoyable journey, and as you exit the attraction you will step into Project Tomorrow, an interactive area that allows you to explore different aspects about your current and future world through games and activities.

World Showcase. World Showcase is a representation of eleven different countries that are located around World Showcase Lagoon. Each country is considered a Pavilion, and each pavilion offers food, culture and entertainment specific to that country. The best time to tour World Showcase is during the day; you will not be able to take in all the theming at night. World Showcase offers a lot of great photo opportunities through sunset.

The Land. This is an indoor pavilion in Future World that is home to the attractions Soarin’, Circle of Life & Living with the Land. You will also find the Behind the Seeds Tour (a fee-based, guided tour of four greenhouses featured in the Living with the Land attraction) located here. The Sunshine Seasons Food Court has a great variety of food and plenty of seating available. The Garden Grill is a sit-down character dinner meal featuring Mickey and his friends, and is part of the dining plan. Chances are if you enjoyed fresh vegetables or fish during your meal, it was grown right there at Epcot.

Illuminations: Reflections of Earth. This is a fourteen minute display of fireworks and laser lights that is definitely a must-not-miss attraction at Epcot. It tells the tale of our planet Earth by displaying images on a 350,000 pound sphere in the middle of Showcase Lagoon. Please plan to arrive at least one hour prior to its performance to secure a good viewing point.

I was selected to participate in a special opportunity through the Disney Parks Blog- to view the animal care facilities behind the scenes. I am thrilled to have been able to take part, and I wanted to share my experience here. We were informed that this tour was not the same as the Backstage Safari Tour that guests can reserve through Disney, but offered a one-of-a-kind encounter with cast members who were directly involved with the care and training of animals.

There were nineteen people present; we were divided into two groups, and driven by van to the backstage area. The Disney geek in me was just excited to be riding in a Walt Disney World van! We passed the area where the new Festival of the Lion King Theater was being constructed, but in true Disney fashion it was under wraps and we weren’t able to view a lot from the road. We had two different opportunities: to view the lion housing area and to tour the veterinary hospital. My group was able to view the lion housing area first. As this was a backstage area, no pictures were allowed.

There were two lionesses and one lion in the holding area: the lionesses were pacing back and forth upon seeing us, but the lion just continued his afternoon nap, on his back, showing his tummy! These lions were approximately five years old, and have been with Disney for approximately two years. The lions out on the safari were seventeen years old, so quite a bit older. The two sets of lions are on a three day rotation: every three days the backstage lions get to go out on the safari, and the safari lions then spend their time in the holding area. At no time are the two male lions allowed contact with each other; there is an empty pen kept between the young lions and the older lions.

All food given to the animals are dead, because of the hazard a live animal could potentially give to the animal consuming it. The safety and well being of the animals is of utmost concern for Disney, and we were given the example of giving a live rat to a snake who was not hungry, and having that rat bite the snake and causing injury.

One of the challenges the animal staff encounters is training the lions to do a voluntary blood draw. There is a special cage where the lions are encouraged to enter, and a small side panel drops down to allow their tail to swish out. The bigger an animal’s tail, the more blood vessels it contains, so access to a lion’s tail allows the staff to safely do a blood draw, to order to monitor the health of the lion. As I mentioned before, this is all voluntary on the part of the animal, and at no time does Disney force the issue. All desired behaviors are encouraged using positive reinforcements, such as favorite foods. The five year old lionesses are still in the training stage, even after two years.

There are ten veterinarians on staff at Disney, to care for approximately 2,000 thousand animal at Animal Kingdom, 300 animals located at Animal Kingdom Lodge, and 3,000 animals at the Seas with Nemo and Friends. There are times the animals at Animal Kingdom Lodge are moved to Animal Kingdom, and vice versa. It all depends on where an animal thrives best. At night the animals on safari are called into their holding areas with a special sound unique to their species. However it was noted that during the summertime some of the animals would prefer to stay out, and they are not forced inside. It typically does not take long for new animals to learn the sound and follow the path into their holding areas. There is also a different, emergency signal that the animals learn, to come in during the day if necessary. This is practiced once a month. In the case of the lions, a special treat of rabbit is presented to them upon return to the holding areas. This special signal would be enforced if bad weather was approaching, or if something came inside their pen that could be potentially harmful to the animals there.

This was the end of our tour of the lion holding area; we went back to the van and were then transported to the veterinary hospital, where we were greeted by Dr. Scott, chief operating veterinary doctor. We were told it was a special treat to have him as our tour guide. We were given a pin that he said could not be found anywhere else on Disney property, so if we were going to trade it, we should trade it for something big! Here is a picture of the pin:

We were led into the x-ray room- on the picture below the table you see supports animal weight of up to 1,000 pounds.

The cart in the picture below is unique in that Disney is the only animal care facility that has one, mainly because it is cost prohibitive to other animal facilities and they cannot justify the expense. The cart contains everything pictured in this room, so that it can be transported directly out to the animal. In the past, x-rays would be taken on a sedated animal in the field, an intern would come back to this room to develop the pictures, and then more likely than not, the image would be blurry because an animal had moved at the last minute. So then the intern would need to return to the animal, retake the x-ray again, and hope this time it provided a clear image. Each additional x-ray that needed to be taken required the animal to be sedated for a longer period of time. Dr. Scott stated that Disney purchased the cart, not because they’re Disney and need to have the best equipment there is, but because it provided a significant increase in the quality of care that the animals received.

The grappling hooks in the next picture are used to support gorillas during a chest x-ray. Older gorillas tend to have a high incidence of heart disease, and in fact, two gorillas on Disney property do have the condition. This, of course, needs to be monitored, and one way is through chest x-rays. Because the gorillas need to be standing up during the x-ray, and because it is impossible to support the gorillas in an upright stance while they are sedated, it is necessary to support them through the use of these hooks.

This is a picture of a mammogram machine that is used to provide care to the animals: not in the way humans use the machine, but on any area that requires a closer inspection.

We were then led into the main operating room, which as you can tell from the photo is observable to park guests from inside Conservation Station. This is where 90% of all the procedures take place; Dr. Scott stated that they do not pick and choose which animal gets treated. It just depends on what animal needs care on a particular day. If they strongly suspect a particular animal will not survive the procedure, then they may perform the operation in an inner room. He stated that life and death happens in this room, and there are times when staff members need to go outside the room afterwards and talk to guests about what happened. All procedures are performed in the morning, and the best time to be there is 10am if you wish to witness it!

We were then taken into an inner room to view a “patient”, a turtle who had been hit by a car which cracked its shell. We were informed that the turtle was 98% healed, but because Florida is entering cooler weather, with cooler water temperatures, they felt it better not to release her until the spring. No pictures were allowed at this point.

Overall, it was definitely a magical experience! A huge shout-out to Walt Disney World for allowing a few guests to see the inner magic of Disney. As dedicated as Walt Disney World is to the safety and enjoyment of their guests, this also applies to their animal residents, and it was a privilege to be able to witness how dedicated the veterinary and animal team are to their residents.

Ever since the rumours started a few months back that Disney would soon be changing the Guest Assistance Card (GAC) program to a new system or doing away with it altogether, we’ve been waiting for the official word to come. A few weeks ago that word came and the GAC was set to change over to the new Disability Access Service (DAS) effective October 9th. You can find Disney’s official statement and FAQ on the program at this link. Our first visit to a Park under the new program was this past Saturday, October 12th. Here is our experience at the Magic Kingdom.

We started our day with a stop at Guest Services at City Hall. The line was shorter than we typically encounter and we were met at the door by a very nice CM, Vas, who brought us inside. He asked a few questions on Ben’s needs and began filling out a form on his iPad entering this info. He used the iPad to take Ben’s photo and then went behind the desk to pick up the printed DAS card. They are no longer hand-printed, they are printed out using the info supplied to the CM, the Guest’s photo, the issuing Park and the time frame the card will be good for. Vas explained that as Annual Passholders we could only get the card for 14 days. He told us this was due to the fact that Disney is still testing and refining the process and they want to be able to make changes as needed. He also went over the program in detail explaining how the card works. We take the card to the Fastpass entrance of any attraction where the CM will note the current time, the wait time and the return time on the back of the card. The return time is based on the current wait time minus 10 minutes. So if the current time is 3:00pm and the wait time is 30 minutes, the return time will be 3:20pm. We can return any time after that return time, there is no time limit as with a Fastpass. We also learned that if we are given a return time and decide to skip that attraction, we have to go back to that attraction and have the return time crossed out, even if we don’t ride, before we can get a new one at another attraction.

Next we had Re-Entry Passes (sometimes referred to as Re-admittance or Re-ad cards) explained. If a Guest has a cognitive disability that could cause melt-downs when waiting to board or re-ride a favourite attraction, Disney will issue Re-Entry Passes to allow for immediate use of the Fastpass queue to enter. These look like and are used just as Fastpass tickets (photo below). We were issued 1 pass apiece for 3 attractions, a total of 12 passes for the 4 of us.

We entered the Magic Kingdom and decided to first get a set of Fastpasses for one attraction to plan around. We got these for Winnie the Pooh and also received a set for Mickey’s Philharmagic. Our plan was to get a DAS return time, enjoy Mickey and then go forward from there. Jen went to get a DAS time at Under The Sea. The CM was confused at first, it seemed this was the first one she had done, but quickly had the card filled out. We were given a 30-minute return time and then went into Philharmagic using those Fastpasses. After enjoying the show we walked over to Under the Sea and arrived just at our return time. We entered through the Fastpass queue where the CM crossed out the entry and let us enter. We showed the DAS card again at the second CM and entered in.

After riding Under the Sea we still had some time before we could use our Pooh Fastpasses so we used the Re-entry Passes to ride Barnstormer. To use these passes we do need to show the DAS card as well, although the CM at Barnstormer didn’t ask to see it. We were asked to see it when using the passes at Space Mountain and Buzz Lightyear however. Afterwards we used our ‘regular’ Fastpasses at Pooh and then moved to Tomorrowland where we used the Re-entry Passes at Space Mountain and Buzz and also rode TTA. At this point my energy was spent for the day and we headed home.

Overall our experience was very positive. The CMs were all helpful and everything worked smoothly for us Saturday. With good planning; by using Fastpasses (and Fastpass+ once available), the Re-entry Passes and the DAS card this program should work out well for our particular needs. We can see how this program might still need refinement for families coming on vacations and for those families with different needs. It does work differently for those needing extra accommodations, such as using strollers as wheelchairs, etc., as well.

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